Barts Health speeds up care with digital heart tests
Patients across north east London are now benefiting from faster, safer cardiac care thanks to digital heart tests.
Electrocardiograms (ECGs), used to check the heart and diagnose heart attacks, are commonly needed for patients with chest pain, palpitations, dizziness, or suspected heart problems.
Previously, ECGs were printed on paper, which could be hard to track down. This sometimes meant tests had to be repeated and patients stayed in hospital longer.
Now, WiFi-enabled ECG machines send results straight into patients’ electronic records.
Doctors and nurses at the Barts Heart Centre, based at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and serving the wider Barts Health hospitals, can view current and past ECGs within seconds, even before a patient arrives.
This helps staff make quick, accurate decisions – avoiding unnecessary tests or speeding up urgent treatment when arteries need opening, often within 60 minutes.
Since the project began, over 200,000 ECGs have been carried out digitally, with adoption rising from under a third to nearly 90% of tests.
"This has been an amazing transformation and it is still growing – with areas such as our intensive care unit and specialist beds on some wards readying to come on board with digital ECGs in the next year," said Dr Krishnaraj Sinhji Rathod, a consultant in interventional cardiology at Barts Health.
"There is no longer a need to take a printed document, write a name, or manually record data – reducing inaccuracies and errors in patient care, and risks of records going missing or being misfiled."
The change also reduces paper use, cutting costs and supporting the NHS’s environmental goals. The initiative aligns with the NHS’s 10-Year Plan to shift care from analogue to digital and could serve as a model for other hospitals.
The project has attracted attention in the media, including Hospital Times, MedTech Insights, and Health Tech World.
Dr Rathod added: "This simple step is transforming care at Barts Heart Centre and could benefit hospitals across the NHS."
This is an update to a story originally published in November 2023.
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